Alan Kling and Greg Mankiw do Tyler Cowen no good service in
recommending that he read Keith Hennessey -- who is in full spin
entropy-maximization mode, striving to reduce the level of the
debate. And Tyler does his readers no good service in
reproducing Hennessey (see: graph).

Left out of Hennessey's "analysis" i the reason that an 8.3% of
GDP deficit is warranted: that the economy is very weak.

Left out of Hennessey's "analysis" is the reason that President
Obama projects bigger deficits this year than he did last
year--that the economy is extremely weak, and is much weaker than
we expected it to be, and when the economy is weak the deficit
goes up as revenues fall and social-insurance spending rises: a
year ago the administration expected the unemployment rate now to
be 7.7%, but it's 10.0%; a year ago the administration expected
the unemployment rate at the start of fiscal 2011 to be 7.0%, but
now it expects it to be 9.8%; a year ago the administration
expected the unemployment rate at the start of fiscal 2012 to be
6.4%, but now it expects it to be 8.9%.